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Dessert

Thanksgiving Cake

A spiced cake with molasses, raisins, citron, and spices, layered with currant jelly and frosted.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Thanksgiving Cake

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, cream together the sugar and butter. Add the eggs, vanilla, and sweet milk, mixing well.

  3. In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking powder, then gradually add to the wet mixture.

  4. Divide the batter in half.

Make the dark batter

  1. To one half, add molasses, cloves, raisins, allspice, citron, nutmeg, flour, and cinnamon.

Bake and assemble

  1. Pour the light batter into one layer and the dark batter into another.

  2. Bake the layers until a toothpick comes out clean.

  3. Once cooled, layer the cakes with currant jelly in between.

  4. Cover the assembled cake with white frosting.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,049 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and add structure as they set during baking.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness through fat coating the flour and creaming with sugar.
Flour
Provides the main structure that sets as the cake bakes.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the layers rise lighter.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the batter brown and stay moist.
Molasses
Adds dark color, moisture, and a deep sweet flavor to the dark batter.

The step that matters

Checking the bake with a toothpick. Layers pulled too early may collapse or be gummy, while over-baking dries the cake. A toothpick that comes out clean shows the crumb has set through.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, flour, egg, vanilla, milk, molasses):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, flour, egg, vanilla, milk, molasses. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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